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Engineering and construction company Kalpataru Projects International Ltd is bracing for the adverse impact of the Middle East conflict on its March quarter (Q4FY26) earnings. During a recent analyst meet, management noted that the Middle East accounts for 10-11% of its ₹63,300-crore order book. The power transmission & distribution (T&D) business is expected to see a potential revenue impact of ₹200-300 crore due to supply-related challenges.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: India’s automakers have told the government that consumers are unlikely to adopt flex-fuel vehicles unless high-ethanol fuels such as E85 and E100 are priced significantly below petrol, according to two people aware of discussions between the petroleum ministry, oil marketing companies, and auto lobby group Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam).The industry has sought lower retail pricing for high-ethanol fuels along with tax benefits as the government accelerates work on a roadmap for higher ethanol blending amid rising energy security concerns.In Brazil, where most vehicles can run on E85 or E100 fuels, high-ethanol blends are priced lower than the standard E27, according to the country’s national agency of petroleum, natural gas, and biofuels.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: In 1973, Arab nations declared an embargo on oil production, leading to a global energy crisis. Prices quadrupled overnight. And some governments suddenly remembered ethanol.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.It began with Tintin. Hergé’s comic books about a globe-trotting journalist who keeps getting into scrapes was irresistible source material at a time when cinema’s latest attraction was splashy travelogue adventures. But Tintin was a big enough deal that Francophone filmmakers were wary of not doing it justice.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The third gulf war should, in theory, be a huge blessing for big oil. In January most analysts had expected Brent crude, the global oil-price benchmark, to average $60 a barrel in 2026. It ended the first quarter at $118; refined products have risen faster still.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.When France opens their World Cup campaign on 17 June against Senegal at the Metlife Stadium in New Jersey, they will do so as one of the firm favourites to lift the greatest prize in the game. Winners in 2018 and finalists in 2022, France will arrive on US soil brimming, as usual, with some of the finest players on the global stage right now.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India currently levies a 5% basic customs duty on raw cotton imports. The government had temporarily waived this duty between 19 August and 30 September 2025, and later extended this exemption to 31 December 2025.Addressing the media on the supply-chain scenario amid the war in West Asia, Bipin Menon, trade advisor in the textiles ministry, said on Tuesday that discussions were ongoing with the ministry of agriculture and the department of revenue on reducing or eliminating customs duty on cotton.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Sun Pharma would appear to have got itself a sweet deal when it agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of US-based Organon for $3.7 billion in cash at $14 per share.The US pharma company had outstanding debt of $8.6 billion at the end of 2025, annual sales of $6.2 billion and adjusted Ebitda of $1.9 billion (i.e., earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). Its enterprise value of $11.75 billion, as widely reported, is the sum of its stock value and debt, less cash on hand.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.SÃO PAULO—A Brazilian gang founded in the country’s violent prisons is fast becoming one of the world’s biggest criminal organizations, reshaping global cocaine flows from South America to Europe’s busiest ports and edging into the U.S.Long under Washington’s radar, the First Capital Command, known by its Portuguese initials PCC, started out as a disgruntled band of inmates fighting for soap and toilet paper in the 1990s.It now has some 40,000 members behind bars and on the streets with a vast network of affiliates—making it the largest criminal group in the Americas by some estimates, operating in nearly 30 countries on every continent except Antarctica.“The PCC has become a truly transnational group,” said Lincoln Gakiya, Brazil’s top PCC prosecutor, who has tracked its rise for two decades. “I believe it is now the fastest-growing criminal organization in the world.”With the scale of Italian organized criminal groups and the efficiency of a multinational corporation, the PCC has helped drive record cocaine seizures in Europe and sparked violent turf wars in the heart of major ports in Belgium and the Netherlands.Prosecutors and police in Brazil are calling on President Trump to label the PCC a Foreign Terrorist Organization, joining more than a dozen other Latin criminal networks.The PCC is organized crime at its most organized, prosecutors say.Unlike the narco-tycoons of Mexico, the heavily armed Colombian cocaine militias or the flashy drug lords of Rio de Janeiro’s Red Command gang, PCC members keep a low, businesslike profile, seeking fortune not fame—and shying away from the kinds of gratuitous violence that attract police and TV news crews.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Indian automakers are beginning to feel the operational strain of the West Asia conflict, with companies flagging supply bottlenecks, longer shipping times and rising costs, even as domestic demand remains resilient.Early signals from industry executives suggest the impact is weighing far more on supply chains than on demand, which has so far held up. The spillover is beginning to feed into production and exports, pushing up costs that companies are gradually passing on to consumers.At the centre of the strain is the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime chokepoint that has seen vessel movement fall sharply amid repeated disruptions.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.If you want proof that multilateralism is limping and hobbling, all you have to do is look at the latest ministerial of the World Trade Organization (WTO) held last month. The talks ended without any consensus over a global trade deal, adding yet another episode to years of paused global trade agreements.

The turmoil of the last year-and-a half— tariff wars and physical wars (Iran, Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine), the abduction of a head of state and assassination of another, territorial ambitions and tattered alliances—has led to claims that the Pax Americana of stable global institutions managing commerce and conflict has ended. If that is true, what comes next? This uncertainty has fostered many forecasts of the future of global politics by policy pundits.Consider the analysis of Hal Brands, a historian at Johns Hopkins University and the American Enterprise Institute.

GDP growth in the December quarter and strong manufacturing activity. This placed India among the better-performing economies on domestic indicators and pushed it closer to the top of the table.Currency and equity markets showed some recovery in February compared with the previous few months, but remained among the weaker performers compared to peers.

Like the ministerial gatherings in 1999, 2003 and 2017, the 14th Ministerial of the World Trade Organization (WTO), held at Yaoundé, Cameroon, ended without an agreement on anything. US trade representative Jamieson Greer used the occasion to reiterate his long-held view that the WTO is not of much use. This trade body operates by consensus and India has had its fair share of blame for such huddles yielding little, having held firm on its right to subsidize agriculture, a point that rich countries found hard to stomach.

Having risen steadily over time, the share of Indian households who use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as their primary source of fuel for cooking is now at 60% as of 2024. Another 33% of households still used firewood.This data comes from India's Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys, a series of large, nationally representative household surveys conducted by the National Statistical Office, which ask the head of the household what the primary source of energy used by the household in the 30 days preceding the survey was.

BPCL) signed a long-term contract to procure 12 million barrels of crude in 2026-27 from Petrobras in January this year, renewing a previous contract signed in 2025.While Brazil is largely self-sufficient in crude oil production, it has one “vulnerability”, according to Nóbrega. “One vulnerability is that we are self-sufficient in crude oil production, but we are not self-sufficient in refined oil,” he said, adding that diesel is required for a bulk of the freight transport in the country by road and rail.“India also could install refineries in Brazil because you are one of the largest countries in terms of oil refining,” he said, noting that one of India’s biggest exports to the largest country in South America is refined oils, including diesel.India has a refining capacity of 258 million tonnes per year and has helped countries such as Nigeria and Mongolia develop refineries.

Mint has reviewed the correspondence.Such cookstoves are used in African countries such as Nigeria and Ethiopia and elsewhere in Brazil.The push by ISMA and GEMA comes in the backdrop of India’s ethanol makers also lobbying the government for higher ethanol blends in vehicle fuels and to find more use-cases for the country’s surplus ethanol production, as reported by Mint earlier. They have been seeking incentives for flex-fuel vehicles which run on very high ethanol blending, and higher procurement of ethanol by oil marketing companies.

trade deficit of nearly $100 billion with China. Local production funded by FDI could substitute a part of these imports.Second, net FDI inflows have fallen significantly in recent years, making new sources of capital increasingly valuable.Third, the Israel–Iran war has once again exposed India’s energy vulnerabilities.

₹2 crore over five days, excluding revenue from souvenirs and other merchandise. The estimated economic impact generated for hotels, transport services, restaurants, artisans and local businesses is pegged at ₹130 crore, according to KLF officials.It was not an isolated spike.

The Estée Lauder Companies has signed an agreement to acquire the stake it doesn’t already own in Indian luxury beauty company Forest Essentials, with the transaction expected to close in the second half of 2026, said Stéphane de La Faverie, president and chief executive officer of The Estée Lauder Companies.The deal completes an 18-year partnership with the luxury Ayurveda brand, which was founded by Mira Kulkarni.Forest Essentials sells Ayurvedic skincare and haircare products and competes with premium labels such as Kama Ayurveda. Estée Lauder had a 49% stake in the company in 2013, which it increased from a 20% stake it took in 2008.Speaking to Mint, La Faverie, said, “Today, this brand is the leader in prestige skincare in India, which is still a very small segment of the larger beauty business in India.

Last week’s AI Impact Summit ended the way these gatherings routinely do. This time with a ‘New Delhi Declaration,’ a non-binding hymn to cooperation and the hope that “AI could be made to serve humanity.” It’s the sort of empty language that dozens of countries and international organizations can sign up to without changing a thing.The most revealing statement came from the industry. Hours before the declaration, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman offered a bit of moral arithmetic in an interview with the Indian Express.